


Changing Captains and Concerned Crew

by HamishHolmes



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Bones, Bones in Charge, Different Captain, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 13:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2152473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HamishHolmes/pseuds/HamishHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bones wakes up in the med-bay with cracking injuries and a feeling that something is very wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What the HELL Happened?

Bones could feel blood trickling down his forehead, matting in his eyebrow and dripping gently down onto his cheek. He tried to move, but he couldn’t _feel_ his legs, let alone move them. Slowly, he cranked his eyes open, ignoring the pain shooting through his head as he did so. He glanced round in the bright light, eyes protesting with every movement. Reaching his hand up to wipe away the blood, he noticed a large bruise by rubbing it hard. He winced, curling his hand into a fist.

His eyes began to adjust slowly and the room began to swim into focus. As he realised what he was seeing, he wanted to close his eyes and squeeze them so hard that they would let him ignore reality forever. But he didn’t. Instead, he shifted slightly, reaching down to massage his sleeping legs.

He sat for what seemed an eternity, rubbing feeling back into his calves and trying to ignore his feeling that something was terribly wrong.

Eventually, he found that he could get to his knees without being in agony and he began to crawl slowly across the room. The room in question was the med-bay. He’d know the shape of the room in the dark; it was permanently burned onto his retinas. But it was so empty. The beds were gone and the screens smashed. There didn’t seem to be a hypo or tricroder left anywhere. He frowned as he crawled, desperate to remember anything at all about what had happened, but nothing was forth coming. He was also pissed that someone had done this to his med-bay and when he found them, they were going to be in great pain. As Bones crawled, he thought, trying to place the uneasy feeling and the cause of it. Then it hit him.

The ship was silent.

There were no echoes of Jim’s laughter. There was no clatter of cutlery on plates as the last shift shovelled food into their mouths because, as Sulu once put it, ‘we have no idea when we’ll next be plunged into a cross-space shoot out’. Bones smiled grimly, hoping he’d be able to hear those sounds again. His next thought stopped him cold. There was no noise from the ship. Scotty had been lobbying for permission to install his latest silent engines, but he was missing some parts, so it had been postponed. They were free floating in space.

If there was anyone else to make a ‘they’.

He stood up shakily, holding onto the wall. His legs wanted to buckle and they were shaking under his weight, but he was upright and that was something. He pressed a button and the door hissed open, the noise soft and menacing in the emptiness. He felt sick, but he didn’t dare stop, not until he knew what was going on. There was no sign of life and he could hear his own stumbling shuffling steps as he made his way to the bridge. If there was any one left alive on the ship, it would be there.

He reached the door to the bridge and halted. He wasn’t sure that he was prepared for what could be on the other side of that door. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be, but someone on the other side could need immediate medical assistance and he may be the only one alive to give it. With a final deep breath, he pressed the button and entered the bridge.

The hiss of the door sounded, but Bones didn’t hear it over his sigh of relief. There, slumped over in his chair, head on the desk was Sulu; and there was Uhura, bent backwards and huffing slightly as she breathed; and there was Chekov, sprawled across the floor near his station. Bones limped over to the captain’s chair to wake Jim and get a tricroder from the hopefully hidden medical supplies.

The chair was empty.


	2. Wakey Wakey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew begin to come round.

He scanned the room quickly: no Spock either. He groaned loudly. Why was the world fucking with him today? Quickly he found the medical supplies and gave himself a shot of something to get his legs working properly again. Then he grabbed the tricroder and started running it over Chekov and the others. None of them had sustained any damage except for a small amount of bruising on the upper arm on Chekov. They all appeared to be sleeping, but there were no traces of drugs in their bodies, merely normal levels of sleep hormones. He checked again just to be sure, but the tricroder said that they were all fine. Bones went back over to the medical chest and pulled out a couple of hypos. He emptied half of one into each of the three of them and then began trying to wake the others without shots of adrenaline because the damn people, whoever they were had left him with only one box of medical supplies on the whole damn ship. He only hoped that they hadn’t got to the set of boxes beneath his bed full of the experimental drugs that his friends from the academy sent him in order to treat the ridiculous amount of allergies Jim seemed to have.

The sound of Sulu’s back cricking was loud in the yawning emptiness, bringing Bones out of his thoughts. And then the rest of the crew began to come to life as Bones poured water over them, clapped in their ears and shouted. The minute Uhura was awake, she was on her feet. Well, she was on her feet and then on the floor; her legs had fallen asleep too.

“Here,” said Bones, jabbing the remains of his hypo into her, “this’ll help.”

“Thanks,” she said, climbing to her feet, “what happened?”

“I was rather hoping you’d be able to tell me.”

“Unfortunately, the last thing I remember was the Captain opening an on screen link up to the ship that was sending out a level 3 distress signal,” said Uhura, watching Sulu help Chekov up off the floor.

“So, you don’t know what happened to him and Spock then?”

“What do you mean?!” asked Uhura, glancing rapidly round the room, “they’ve gone?”

“Yeah, but right now, I need to find out if Scotty’s still on board,” said Bones, “Chekov, can you open a ship wide link for me.”

“Yis, doctor,” said the man, hitting buttons and flipping some switches, “we’re ship wide, Doctor.”

“Scotty, if you’re awake I need you on this bridge in under two minutes.”

Bones checked that the other crew members were awake and okay. Some of them had minor cuts that he fixed up. He was just getting worried when Scotty appeared on deck, stretching his neck as he walked.

“Scotty, do you have any idea what happened?”

“No, I’ve just woken up. Don’t you guys know what’s going on?”

“We’ve only just woken up too, Scotty,” said Sulu, looking at his screen.

“Right, well then, that makes this hard.”

“Instead of stating the obvious, could you go and check why the engines aren’t working and how soon we can get them and the warp core back online,” said Bones, automatically taking charge and trying to get things done.

“Aye,” said Scotty, leaving the deck again.

“AND KEEP YOUR COMMS UNIT ON!” yelled Bones after him, the doors hissing shut on his cry.

Uhura turned and looked at him, her head quizzically tilted. Bones caught her staring and threw her a questioning look. 

“I guess captaining rubs off on you,” she said, “I’d find yourself a gold shirt and a chair.”

“What?”

“We need a captain and we have no one to replace him with, since Spock is also gone, you are going to have to take command.”

“What!? Why me, you are much better suited to it,” said Bones, edging slightly away from the captain’s chair.

“No, I’m not,” she said, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder, “I can’t keep a cool head in a crazy situation like a doctor can: like you can. And you know Jim’s methods, much better than any of us do.”

“Fine, I’ll be acting –captain, but you continue to call me Doctor, or McCoy and I’m not wearing a gold shirt. No way,” said Bones, with an emphatic shake of his head to emphasise his point.

“Fine, but you need to get on with whatever you need us to do, because we have no idea where Spock and Jim are.”

Bones looked at the chair again out of the corner of his eyes and then, with a glance upwards at the ceiling and a silent apology to Jim, he sat down in the chair.


	3. Scanning the Skies

“Right, Mr Sulu, I need a power reading as quickly as you can.”

“We’re at 100% Doctor,” said Sulu, spinning his chair back round so that he was facing his screen, “I don’t think that it’s a power problem that’s stopped the engines.”

Bones looked down at the confusing array of buttons and sighed.

“Can somebody tell me which of these damn buttons I need to press to open a link to Scotty?” he growled, cursing Jim’s unfailing memory.

“That one,” said Uhura, pointing to a button that Bones then pressed, “Scotty, please tell me you can hear me.”

“Aye, Ca – Doctor, I can hear you, but I don’t really understand anything that’s going on down here.”

“Are you an engineer or aren’t you?” asked Bones, tone exasperated.

“Yeah, but there’s nothing wrong down here,” said Scotty, “the engine is in perfect condition and if this warp core doesn’t function then I’m as dumb as Keesner.”

“Right, then we’re going to fire her up. He turned to Sulu, “can you get us moving, Mr Sulu.”

Sulu tapped a bunch of keys, “It looks like we’re operational, but I have no idea where we should go.”

“First of all, let’s get us stable so that we aren’t falling through space with the possibility of being pulled into orbit at any moment, then I’ll talk directions.”

Sulu nodded and soon the familiar hum of the Enterprise told Bones that they were okay.

“Right, Mr Chekov, I need your mathematical skills with me now,” Bones spun in the chair, until he was facing the right person, “and you, can you pull up the log and tell me the times of the last incoming transmission and the times that the engine was turned off.”

He spun again and wondered where his desk was. How did Jim manage to do his calculations without somewhere to write things down?

“Is there a PADD around here somewhere?” he asked, holding out one hand.

Someone put a PADD in his hand and he thanked them, bringing it onto his lap and the other one up to rub his temple.

“Doctor?”

“Yes.”

“We received a transmission at 21:18 hours and the engines went off at 21:20 hours.”

“Okay, Chekov, I need you to use your amazing brain to extrapolate from the figures where we were when the engines cut out.”

“Zat vill not be easy, Doctor,” said Chekov, looking down at the PADD and the figures.

“You have about ten minutes till I start getting to my annoying stage where I will ask how close we are to completion at all times.”

“Yes, sir.”

About 7 minutes later, Chekov put his PADD in Bones’ lap.

“I think that this is it, as best as I can get it,” he said, “I’m sorry if it is not the correct coordinates, but I’m pretty sure it will be close.”

“Chekov,” said Bones looking him right in the eyes, “it’s great, thank you.”

Chekov blushed slightly and returned to his seat in time to catch a smile from Sulu.

“Right, Sulu, punch in those coordinates and get us moving.”

Sulu obliged, throwing the ship forward into warp 6 and jerking it out when they reached the coordinates Chekov had calculated. 

“Okay, scan for traces of our engines.”

“We can’t do that, McCoy,” said Uhura, “we can trace for warp signature, but we weren’t really in warp when we arrived. We can try though.”

“Do that then ... what Uhura said.”

The scanning completed minutes later with a positive ding.

“Does that mean we were here?” asked Bones, wishing he had listened more when Jim babbled about the ship.

“Yes, Doctor,” said Uhura, “now, I suggest that we scan for foreign warp signatures and then follow them. Once we’ve located the ship that we think took Kirk and Spock, we can scan ‘em until we find them and then we beam them aboard and blow those other guys out of the sky.”

The bridge crew was taken aback by Uhura’s outburst, but Bones had known her long enough to know that it just meant that she was scared for their friends, hell, their boyfriends and God knew Bones was scared too. So he didn’t look at her as he told the bridge crew to do as she suggested.


	4. Talk to me ...

Soon, the ship arrived into new space.

“Scan for ships.”

“There are 16 ships in the vicinity.”

“Remove Starfleet ships,” said Bones, hoping that he wasn’t being stupid.

“Now 9 ships in the vicinity.”

“Fuck,” said Bones, hitting the armrest, “alright, remove the ships with a standard number of crew onboard.”

“Six ships.”

“Can you scan to find ships with no Vulcan life forms on board?”

“I can try.”

Bones waited in an anxious silence until bing.

“We’ve got four ships here with a Vulcan on board.”

“Why couldn’t it have been one fucking ship,” sighed Bones, “just for once, a simple life.”

“Bones, let’s try talking to some of them,” suggested Uhura, flipping some switches on her station.

“Alright, I guess we should hail one of them ...?” he trailed off into uncertainty wishing that he was still hiding himself in the med bay instead of in this suddenly dwarfing chair.

“I’m on it,” said Uhura, but she swivelled to face Bones, “Bones, you need to present yourself as a confident captain of this ship. You gotta sound like you know what you’re doing or they’re never going to believe you.”

“Alright, patch me through.”

Bones leant into one of Jim’s cocky poses that he usually adopted when he was about to talk to people, but at the last minute he swung his legs forward again and leant on one of the armrests instead.

“Hello?” came a voice as an image formed on the screen.

“Hello, is this the ...” Bones trailed off slightly, until Uhura sent a message onto the screen by the guy’s face with the name of his ship, “FL70 class ship, New Hope?”

“Yes, that’s us.”

“This is acting-captain McCoy of the USS Enterprise and I need to ask you a few questions.”

“We were actually just about to go to warp, Captain.”

“Well, I’m afraid that will just have to wait a few moments in accordance with the protocol 56 in the case of abduction of crew members, warp travel is postponed until the commanding officer decrees it otherwise,” said Bones, suddenly thankful for all the nights spent memorising work with Jim, “it will only take a couple of minutes.”

“I’m afraid we really do need to warp right now, Captain McCoy.”

Bones leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees, “if you warp out of here before I give the all clear then the rules say that I can blow you sky high the minute you exit warp. The more you argue the longer it will take. If you test me, you will fail.”

Sulu smiled, recognising the line he had used against Khan when he was left in charge as Kirk left the ship.

The man on the other end was glancing around, but eventually, he slumped back into his chair, “Very well.”

“Where did you warp from to get here today?”

“We warped from sector 5X, near Neptune.”

“Right, and do you have any Vulcan’s onboard, captain?”

Another message popped up on screen, saying two.

“Yes, we have two, my engineering staff,”

“Could I speak with them for a brief moment, please, and then we will be on our way and you’ll be free to warp away to your heart’s content.”

“Yes, of course,” said the captain and a minute later Bones had exchanged a few cursory words with the two Vulcans, establishing that they were not Spock and that they didn’t know of any other Vulcans onboard.

“Thank you, gentlemen, you have been most helpful.”

“I appreciate your permission to warp, Captain.”

Bones let the other man terminate the transmission, knowing that the small victory would help him to bear no grudges. He seemed very like Jim in that way.


	5. I wouldn't anger it.

“Uhura, connect me again.”

“Yes sir.”

They repeated the process with the next ship who presented their Vulcan crew members with good grace and smiles, which made Bones feel quite guilty about lying as to why they were asking. But he swallowed it down and connected with the next ship. Well, tried to. They didn’t answer the repeated hail that Uhura sent in multiple languages.

“Try the other guys.”

No response again.

“Can we override their systems and broadcast through them anyway?”

“I’m afraid not, McCoy. It violates protocol.”

“That doesn’t really answer my question, Ensign.”

“Well, technically, it may be possible, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“Fine.”

Bones sat there, thinking as the other crew members fixed their unnerving stares on his face.

“Mr Sulu, are our shields up?”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“And how quickly can we get our shields up on my command?”

“What?” Sulu’s brow furrowed and he glanced Chekov’s way, but his friend’s face was equally blank.

“If we dropped our shields and then I gave the order to raise them again, how quickly can we get them operational? It is not a hard question, Mr Sulu.”

Uhura looked at him, wondering where this sudden ferocity had come from. Maybe it was just that people weren’t playing ball and he wasn’t going to stand for that when Jim’s life could be on the line. Whatever it was, she hoped he knew what he was doing.

“A third of a second, sir,” said Sulu, after looking at Chekov’s rapid calculation.

“And how quickly could either of those ships hit us?”

“Slower than that, sir,” said Chekov, “Mr Scott has installed new shield mechanics to get us online much more quickly and they automatically detect if a projectile is going to hit us.”

“Brilliant,” Bones sat up straighter in his chair, “lower the shields Mr Sulu.”

Sulu looked at him like he was mad and hesitated.

“That wasn’t a polite suggestion made by a concerned friend, Sulu; that was an order.”

Sulu took a deep breath and thought to himself that McCoy didn’t mean it and that he was just frustrated.

“Shields are down, Doctor,” said Sulu, “they’re already scanning us.”

“I expect nothing less.”

They all stared at the flashing red light that told them that they were being scanned until it flickered off.

“My God, I hope I’m right,” murmured Bones, when Uhura turned to him.

“We’re being hailed,” she said, her tone almost surprised.

“On screen.”

“Ah, Doctor McCoy, I assume.”

“It seems that you have the advantage of me already.”

“Yes, and I suspect that it will stay that way.”

“Is that all you called to say?”

“No, Mr McCoy, it is not.”

The subtle drop of his title was not lost on Bones and it caused a twinge of annoyance, but nothing more.

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense any longer; my crew are on the edges of their seats.”

“Such wit, but supplied from unfamiliar lips. Where are your captain and first mate, Mr McCoy?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” said Bones, wincing at the cliché of it in his head.

“Well, how would I know?”

“Well, you seem to know an awful lot about our ship, Mr ...?”

“I told you that my advantage would remain, Mr McCoy, and it shall.”

“Right, this big advantage that supposedly reassures me that my friends aren’t aboard your wreck.”

The man on screen scowled slightly and Bones could see that he had hit a nerve.

“It’s no wonder that they haven’t escaped yet; it’s hard to orient yourself to ancient technology.”

The man twitched again, anger obvious in the pulsing vein on his forehead.

“I mean, two of the brightest men I know can’t get off your ship? They must be unconscious, or confused by the erratic layout. Our ships are built more in a logical pattern and less like a pile of rubbish.”

“YOU WOULD DO WELL TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, MCCOY!” yelled the man, leaping to his feet. Unfortunately, the camera did not move with him and so the action resulted in a less than impressive view of the man’s torso.

“YOU WOULD DO WELL TO RETURN THE CAPTAIN AND SPOCK TO THIS SHIP RIGHT NOW BEFORE WE LAUNCH A BOARDING PARTY, BECAUSE IF YOU CONTINUE TO REFUSE TO COOPERATE WITH ME THE MINUTE THAT ALL OF OUR CREW ARE OFF YOUR RUST BUCKET, I WILL BLOW YOU TO KINGDOM COME!” Bones calmed himself slightly, “You have no idea who you are up against.”

Bones gave a nod to Uhura who disconnected the link.

“Did you really mean that?” she said, coming to stand behind him.

“Which bit?” asked Bones, slumping in his chair, “oh, Sulu, please can you put the shields back up?”

“Are you going to send a party over to their ship?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I hadn’t figured that bit out yet; I’m trying the Jim Kirk method of planning.”

Bones raced around the ship, taking ideas from everyone he met and trying to formulate a plan. Eventually, he got a plan. It wasn’t a plan he liked. It wasn’t a plan that the others liked. It wasn’t a plan with a high chance of success. It was their only plan. He sat in Jim’s chair and tried to connect with him.

 _What would you do, darlin’_ he thought, wondering if somewhere, Jim was thinking about him.

Then he stood up, “Sulu, I want you and Scotty with me on the away team.”

Sulu nodded and went to find the engineer at Bones’ request. When he had gone, Uhura came over and lay her hand on Bones’ shoulder.

“I want to come with you,” she said, as Bones had known she would.

“No,” he said, turning away from her confused look.

“What?”

“I said no, did you not hear?”

“Why?”

“Because I said so, Uhura.”

“But why?”

Bones spun and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Because I need you here. I need someone on this ship who can take control if we don’t make it back. I need someone who people will listen to. I need someone I can trust.”

His hands fell away from her shoulders.

“I need someone who, if we don’t make it back to our ship, can turn us around and get my ship and my fam- crew out of here.”

Uhura nodded an understanding and went back to her desk.


	6. LAUNCH

Minutes later, the three men going across to the other ship were in the air lock.

“Okay, Uhura, can you align us?” said Bones, as much to test the communications as anything else.

“We are already aligned, Captain,” she said and Bones could hear her intake of breath at the slip of her tongue.

“I’m not Captain any more, Uhura, you are, and we are all counting on you.”

“So no pressure then,” she said and Bones could hear the smile in her voice, “you got your equipment?”

Bones looked down at his holster where his phaser hung gently against his leg, set to stun. On his other thigh, hung his cutter/re-sealer as Scotty had called it. Basically, it was what was getting them onto the ship. They were going to cut their way into the air lock, seal it behind them and then open the inner air lock door. Simple.

“Are you ready boys?” asked Uhura.

They didn’t get the chance to answer though, as the doors opened and the three of them were thrown into the black space beyond.

Bones could see the black nothingness all around him and he breathing quickened and depend as his fear of space resurfaced in his moment of need. His eyes fought to close, but he kept them open, listening to the instructions from the bridge and watching the screen on his helmet as he corrected his course with the minor adjustments needed.

He saw the ship speeding towards him in the darkness and then he collided. He floated away from the ship slightly, but he reached out and grabbed hold, feeling the burn in his arms.

“Are you with me?” he said, looking left and right, “Scotty? Sulu? Are you with me?”

“Aye lad, I’m with ya,” said Scotty’s voice and Bones looked around until he could see the Scotsman hanging onto the side of the ship.

“Sulu?” he asked.

The comms crackled as Uhura’s voice split through the silence.

“We’ve lost him, McCoy,” she said, “his life-signs have gone off; we don’t know where he is.”

Behind her, Bones could hear the soft sobs and Chekov pleading softly in Russian.

“Where did you last see him, Uhura?” he asked, knowing what Jim would do in this position.

“What?”

“Where did his life-signs go off?” McCoy asked again as he scanned around.

“Why?”

“WHERE?” 

“Over to your left, slightly beyond Scotty and about 3 meters behind the ship.”

Bones began to haul himself left, hand over hand towards Scotty.

“What are you doing?” asked Uhura, though everyone knew what he was doing and that he wouldn’t be dissuaded, not when it was something that Jim would have done.

He didn’t answer her, merely gritted his teeth and started muttering to himself.

“Goddammit I’m a doctor not a bloody acrobat. Damn Jim Kirk; I wish I’d never met him or joined his stupid crew.”

When he got to Scotty, he pulled a rope out of the belt of the suit that was intended for latching on to space craft.

“Wrap this round your waist,” said Bones, handing Scotty one end.

“Why?”

“Because if I attach it to the side of the ship, then I’m pretty sure they’ll realise we’re here; they’re not idiots.”

Scotty dutifully wrapped it round his waist and held tight to the supports. As he did, Bones leaned round the side of the ship and he could see Sulu drifting slightly, but definitely away from the ship. He rolled his eyes and threw his head back slightly.

“Brace yourself,” said Bones and then he threw himself off the side of the ship, accelerating towards Sulu.

He could feel the cord unravelling behind him and he reached out for Sulu, but just as he was about to grab him, he felt a jerk as the cord reached its full length and he started moving away. He cursed like a sailor and like the doctor he was. Then Sulu’s body swivelled and Bones managed to get a hold of his leg and began pulling him with him.

“Sulu, are you awake in there?” asked Bones, “If you are and it’s just your comms that are off board nod or move or something.”

Bones nearly held his breath as the belt reeled in the cord behind him, pulling him closer to ‘safety’. And then, as they rounded the corner there was a slight nod of the head. He breathed a slight sigh of relief and grabbed hold of Scotty to moor them to the side of the ship.

“I think his comms might be offline,” said Bones, through the three way com that he set up so that he could talk to the others without talking to the crew back on the Enterprise. He planned on using it for bad news, predominantly.

“Alright, can you reach my right thigh, Scotty?” Said Bones, trying to see inside Sulu’s helmet and thereby see if the man were alive.

Scotty bent slightly and pulled out Bones’ cutter. He ran it gently round the edge of the air lock door, letting them into the room. They moved hand over hand until all three were stood in the air lock. Scotty used the devices second function and resealed the air lock.


	7. All Aboard

“Alright,” said Bones, not taking off his helmet, “Sulu are you okay?”

This time the man definitely nodded and got to his feet.

“When we let the air in here and open up that door, they are going to know that we are here, so dump your helmets and stay in contact with the Enterprise. If one of us goes down, I’m counting on you guys,” Bones stopped slightly, “so, helmets down, phasers up and focus.”

He was about to press a button when he thought something and decided against it for another second.

“Uhura, can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” said Uhura, but the only thing that was loud and clear through Bones’ speaker was her worry.

“Please can you tell Chekov that his man is safe on board,” he said and he could hear the cheers rippling round the room, “but his comms are offline, so you’ll have to wait to talk to him.”

He switched lines again, “okay boys, party time.”

He pressed the button and the air began to hiss in rapidly. The minute the gauge went green, Bones’ popped off his helmet and pulled out his phaser. He saw the other two do the same and then he hit the button to open the door, letting them into the large hallway.

The ship was large, but it appeared that he was right when he called it ancient technology. He recognised a couple of parts that were decommissioned whilst he was in the academy.

“Come on boys.”

They headed towards the screens they could see in the wall about three metres away, but before they could take two steps, a man rounded the corner in front of them. Sulu swung his phaser up and shot the man. He fell silently before he could raise the alarm. Bones motioned that Scotty should drag him into the airlock and out of harm’s way and then continued on to the panel.

“Computer,” he whispered, “locate Vulcan life form.”

“Vulcan life form found in the med-bay,” chorused the computer, oblivious to the precarious situation which it may have just changed irrevocably.

Bones heard a footstep round the corner and the grating hiss of a badly oiled door.

“Shit,” he said, signalling the others, “we may have company.”

Bones looked back at the screen, quickly locating the med-bay on the map and heading that way. Then he stopped with a soft curse. He pulled the two men closer to him.

“Even if we get to Jim and Spock, we’re going to have to disable the shields,” he said, “and there are two ways we can do that. One, we split up and you go and disable them, making it hard to turn them back on so that Uhura can get us out of here.”

“What’s the second way?” asked Scotty.

“We get to Jim and Spock and then we stun everyone between here and the bridge and disable them manually.

“If I can get into the Jefferies tubes, there should be an access panel allowing me to open the ship up and cut the wire that gives power to the shields,” said Scotty, “but it won’t be easy, and once I’ve done it, they’ll know where I am in minutes and then they’ll be able to get them back online.”

“Okay, Sulu, you and Scotty are going to do what he just suggested. Wait on my word to cut the wire and then get Uhura to get you guys out first. Then we’ll come.”

“I’m not letting you guys out first,” said Scotty, his accent thickening.

“Yes you are because you people are young and you still have a life to live. And they’ll find you first. Just trust me, and go!”


	8. Beam us up!

Bones didn’t wait for an answer, instead jogging down the corridor towards the med-bay. He had his phaser up round the corners as he made his way round the ship. He saw only two people, and he shot quickly, hiding the bodies in the Jeffries tubes. Eventually he made it to a corner, around which he knew was the door to the med-bay. He could feel beads of sweat on his forehead and he knew that he was not cut out for being the Jim Kirk in a situation.

He rounded the corner, sighted and shot twice. He missed one of them and hit the other. He immediately rounded again and fired off something like five rounds both of them went down.

“Bloody hell.” He muttered, moving in.

“How are you doing, Scotty?” he said into his comms unit.

“We’re nearly there; I just need to find the right cable in this damn mess.”

Bones shut off Scotty’s muttering and then opened the door. He shot the single guard inside and gasped when he saw Jim and Spock lying pale on the beds. He unclipped them both, quickly, aware that his shots would have warned the whole ship that someone was getting at their prisoners.

“Scotty, cut the shield cable,” he said, “Uhura, get ready to beam us out.”

“We’re standing ready, McCoy,” Uhura’s voice was loud and clear and he relaxed slightly.

“Scotty?”

“Fuck it,” he heard Scotty said and then the lights cuts and Uhura said, “Shields are offline, McCoy.”

“Then get us the hell out of here,” he said, grabbing hold of Jim and Spock, “Sulu and Scotty first.”

There was a brief pause until Uhura’s voice said, “They’re on board.”

Bones could see the silver sparks twisting round all three of them and through them, he could see the crew of the other ship arriving. The one at the head took a shot at Bones, *but they were already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short!


	9. Bring me back, baby

They arrived in the transporter bay to see Sulu and Scotty standing there watching and waiting. As the three of them rematerialised, he could see the two of them relax and breathed as they did.

“Tell Uhura to get us the fuck out of here, right now,” he said to Sulu, lifting Jim onto his shoulder and motioning for Scotty to get Spock.

Sulu raced off and Bones began to head for the med-bay, but about halfway down the corridor he remembered the state it was in and changed course. They reached his quarters quickly and he laid Jim on the bed and Spock on the floor.

“Thanks, Scotty, I’ve got it from here.”

Scotty headed off to check that everything was alright in engineering, whilst Bones pulled a tricroder out of his bedside table, thanking his lucky stars that no one had thought to look for medical equipment there, and then he realised just how sad it was that he slept with a tricroder on hand. But you never know when it might come in handy and it seemed to be coming in handy now.

He ran it quickly over both men. They both had major injuries, but no fatal ones. He patched up the superficial ones and then checked the levels of drugs in their systems. There were traces of some drugs, but none that would react badly with a shot of adrenaline. He sent a quick prayer to whoever was listening and pumped a hypo of adrenaline into each of them. Then he stepped back.

Jim sat bolt upright and groaned, rubbing his head.

“What the fuck happened?” he asked, looking around at the room and realising suddenly that he wasn’t in his quarters or on the bridge.

“It appears some time had elapsed since we were last conscious, captain,” said Spock, also sitting up.

“You’re not wrong, Spock,” said Bones, damn glad that they were awake and not dying.

“Would you care to enlighten us?” said the first mate, standing up and looking down at Bones.

“I suggest you go and tell Uhura that you’re awake, and alive,” said Bones with a pointed eyebrow.

Spock nodded and headed out into the corridor.

“She’ll be in the captain’s chair!” called Bones after him, before swinging his eyes back round to Jim’s, “you bastard.”

Jim was on his feet with his arms around Bones in about two seconds. Bones put his arms around Jim’s waist and put his head on the other man’s chest. He could hear the strong heart beating beneath the gold shirt and he relaxed slightly, knowing that Jim had survived another catastrophe with all his limbs attached.

“You fucking left me in charge,” said Bones, pulling back, “you left me in the chair. You left me.”

“I promise it won’t happen again,” said Jim, laying a kiss on Bones’ forehead.

“It’d better not,” said his CMO, moving back into the hug.


End file.
